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http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/local/13253857.htm
Tyra Lokey-Robinson puts her all into worship.
Her hands clap, swoop and rise as she signs for the deaf. Her face registers joy, expectation and surprise as she leads a group through a choreographed dance-and-signing routine at Hope Community Church, her home congregation in Lawrenceburg.
"When I am interpreting such important things, I just get energized," Lokey-Robinson said.
It's the same spirited performance that wowed an audience last year when Lokey-Robinson signed for Grammy-winning gospel singer Sandi Patty at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington. Lokey-Robinson will sign again for singer Larnelle Harris when he performs Tuesday at Immanuel.
And beginning in February, Lokey-Robinson, 32, will be featured in the "Turning Hearts Tour," a series of programs in 19 cities designed to bring teens and parents closer.
"I believe that Tyra is one of the most uniquely gifted and passionate people I have ever met," said Jason Ellerbrook, coordinator for the Turning Hearts tour. "She is on the verge of becoming a national phenomenon amongst evangelicals."
Going on the road is nothing new for Lokey-Robinson. She travels 40 weeks a year as an evangelist who teaches "sign art" to groups across the country. And she has signed for the deaf at concerts by such contemporary Christian music artists as Third Day, Audio Adrenaline and Casting Crowns.
Hearing persons should not be surprised that deaf people would go to music concerts, Lokey-Robinson said.
"They enjoy music, they enjoy feeling the vibrations just as much as we do," she said. "So I am able to convey what the drums are saying. I bring worship to life for them, so that, while they may not be able to hear it, they can sure feel it."
Kaye Peak, a deaf woman who attends Hope Community Church, said she appreciates Lokey-Robinson's "sign art" ministry. Peak started going to Hope Community after she met Lokey-Robinson at the post office.
"Her interpreting is awesome," Peak said. "Tyra helps me a lot with everything."
Lokey-Robinson describes sign art as a mixture of drama, dance and signing for the purpose of worship.
In these days when The Purpose Driven Life is popular reading among Christians, Lokey-Robinson is an example of that life. And, as author Rick Warren advises, Lokey-Robinson turned her weakness and despair into a testimony that she shares with congregations and conferences across the country.
Lokey-Robinson was born in Louisville. Both of her parents could hear, but she never knew her father. While she is hesitant to describe her childhood in detail, she says there were times when she searched dumpsters for food.
Lokey-Robinson was introduced to signing for the deaf while she was a freshman at Murray State University. She went on a mission trip to Puerto Rico, where the students helped build a church for the deaf. During a church service, she saw a woman signing.
"I was impressed that God used her hands to convey such a powerful message that people were coming to know him," she said.
By the end of that week, Lokey-Robinson was communicating one-on-one with the deaf, who patiently taught her the signs for words. She has no formal training in sign language; all she has learned came from other deaf people.
"You're talking to a person who failed basic math three times," Lokey-Robinson said, laughing. "For this language to stick like it did ... I mean, it was God. I said 'Lord, you gave this to me. The only way I can give it back to you is to share it with your people.'"
As she began sharing that message, more doors began opening. Churches and campus ministers invited her to speaking engagements. She and other young women at a Murray State dormitory started a sign-language team called Open Hands.
Later, she became the only hearing member of a troupe of deaf performers who traveled the United States and overseas.
Later still, she met Jeff Eaton, pastor of Hope Community Church, who invited her to join the staff of the Lawrenceburg church. The congregation pays her a base salary and benefits, and encourages her to travel as an evangelist across the country.
"We want her to go. We bless that," Eaton said. "... With Tyra's ministry, she'll win 300 or 400 people to the Lord a year."
Today the sign art teams she has trained spread the gospel overseas and into jails, juvenile detention centers, and spouse abuse centers.
"It is bigger than I could ever imagine," Lokey-Robinson said. "There are times when I get up and look in the mirror and sign my name just to make sure I'm not dreaming."
Through her appearances at churches and state Baptist conferences, she was noticed by folks at LifeWay Christian Resources, the Nashville-based non-profit that provides Christian products and services.
Lokey-Robinson was part of two LifeWay-organized youth camps called Centrifuge and X-fuge. In February she goes on the road with LifeWay's Turning Hearts Tour, which seeks to bring teenagers and parents closer through worship.
The tour, scheduled to come to the Frankfort Civic Center on Sept. 16, 2006, features Richard Ross, co-founder of the True Love Waits movement that encourages sexual abstinence before marriage.
As if she didn't have enough going on, Lokey-Robinson is writing her autobiography. A new chapter in her life began in May 2004, when she married Jerry Robinson, a teacher's assistant who works with special needs children in the Anderson County school district.
Wherever she goes, Lokey-Robinson has said, she wants to be seen as a billboard for Christ.
"I want people to look at me and say, 'Wow, if God can do this, look at what he can do for me.' I want people to look at me and say 'Testimony.' I want people to read me and read the words of Jesus. Everywhere I go, I try to convey the Lord."
Tyra Lokey-Robinson puts her all into worship.
Her hands clap, swoop and rise as she signs for the deaf. Her face registers joy, expectation and surprise as she leads a group through a choreographed dance-and-signing routine at Hope Community Church, her home congregation in Lawrenceburg.
"When I am interpreting such important things, I just get energized," Lokey-Robinson said.
It's the same spirited performance that wowed an audience last year when Lokey-Robinson signed for Grammy-winning gospel singer Sandi Patty at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington. Lokey-Robinson will sign again for singer Larnelle Harris when he performs Tuesday at Immanuel.
And beginning in February, Lokey-Robinson, 32, will be featured in the "Turning Hearts Tour," a series of programs in 19 cities designed to bring teens and parents closer.
"I believe that Tyra is one of the most uniquely gifted and passionate people I have ever met," said Jason Ellerbrook, coordinator for the Turning Hearts tour. "She is on the verge of becoming a national phenomenon amongst evangelicals."
Going on the road is nothing new for Lokey-Robinson. She travels 40 weeks a year as an evangelist who teaches "sign art" to groups across the country. And she has signed for the deaf at concerts by such contemporary Christian music artists as Third Day, Audio Adrenaline and Casting Crowns.
Hearing persons should not be surprised that deaf people would go to music concerts, Lokey-Robinson said.
"They enjoy music, they enjoy feeling the vibrations just as much as we do," she said. "So I am able to convey what the drums are saying. I bring worship to life for them, so that, while they may not be able to hear it, they can sure feel it."
Kaye Peak, a deaf woman who attends Hope Community Church, said she appreciates Lokey-Robinson's "sign art" ministry. Peak started going to Hope Community after she met Lokey-Robinson at the post office.
"Her interpreting is awesome," Peak said. "Tyra helps me a lot with everything."
Lokey-Robinson describes sign art as a mixture of drama, dance and signing for the purpose of worship.
In these days when The Purpose Driven Life is popular reading among Christians, Lokey-Robinson is an example of that life. And, as author Rick Warren advises, Lokey-Robinson turned her weakness and despair into a testimony that she shares with congregations and conferences across the country.
Lokey-Robinson was born in Louisville. Both of her parents could hear, but she never knew her father. While she is hesitant to describe her childhood in detail, she says there were times when she searched dumpsters for food.
Lokey-Robinson was introduced to signing for the deaf while she was a freshman at Murray State University. She went on a mission trip to Puerto Rico, where the students helped build a church for the deaf. During a church service, she saw a woman signing.
"I was impressed that God used her hands to convey such a powerful message that people were coming to know him," she said.
By the end of that week, Lokey-Robinson was communicating one-on-one with the deaf, who patiently taught her the signs for words. She has no formal training in sign language; all she has learned came from other deaf people.
"You're talking to a person who failed basic math three times," Lokey-Robinson said, laughing. "For this language to stick like it did ... I mean, it was God. I said 'Lord, you gave this to me. The only way I can give it back to you is to share it with your people.'"
As she began sharing that message, more doors began opening. Churches and campus ministers invited her to speaking engagements. She and other young women at a Murray State dormitory started a sign-language team called Open Hands.
Later, she became the only hearing member of a troupe of deaf performers who traveled the United States and overseas.
Later still, she met Jeff Eaton, pastor of Hope Community Church, who invited her to join the staff of the Lawrenceburg church. The congregation pays her a base salary and benefits, and encourages her to travel as an evangelist across the country.
"We want her to go. We bless that," Eaton said. "... With Tyra's ministry, she'll win 300 or 400 people to the Lord a year."
Today the sign art teams she has trained spread the gospel overseas and into jails, juvenile detention centers, and spouse abuse centers.
"It is bigger than I could ever imagine," Lokey-Robinson said. "There are times when I get up and look in the mirror and sign my name just to make sure I'm not dreaming."
Through her appearances at churches and state Baptist conferences, she was noticed by folks at LifeWay Christian Resources, the Nashville-based non-profit that provides Christian products and services.
Lokey-Robinson was part of two LifeWay-organized youth camps called Centrifuge and X-fuge. In February she goes on the road with LifeWay's Turning Hearts Tour, which seeks to bring teenagers and parents closer through worship.
The tour, scheduled to come to the Frankfort Civic Center on Sept. 16, 2006, features Richard Ross, co-founder of the True Love Waits movement that encourages sexual abstinence before marriage.
As if she didn't have enough going on, Lokey-Robinson is writing her autobiography. A new chapter in her life began in May 2004, when she married Jerry Robinson, a teacher's assistant who works with special needs children in the Anderson County school district.
Wherever she goes, Lokey-Robinson has said, she wants to be seen as a billboard for Christ.
"I want people to look at me and say, 'Wow, if God can do this, look at what he can do for me.' I want people to look at me and say 'Testimony.' I want people to read me and read the words of Jesus. Everywhere I go, I try to convey the Lord."
